Patch tribe
by Gartabro
Summary: It doesn't matter who wins the Shaman Fight, the Patch tribe will crown that person Shaman King. Buffy would like to disagree.


**Disclaimer:** _Buffy: the Vampire Slayer_ and _Shaman King_ belong to their respective owners.

**Beta:** deiticlast

x-x

When she jumped, she had expected to die the moment she touched the pure energy of the portal. It happened-no disappointments there-but she had expected to end up in Heaven or some similar place; instead, she found herself in another world as a new born baby. Her gift hadn't just been death, but also life.

Reincarnation.

Buffy wasn't amused at being denied her rest. She _had_ earned it. Buffy had never wanted to be reincarnated in a dimension that wasn't hers (it was that or time travel).

So, now she had a new family now, and she wasn't Buffy anymore. She had a new name and different looks. The Slayer didn't like it. She didn't like her black hair and eyes and she had never asked for a new family. All she had wanted was to finish her fight.

Call her selfish, but she had been tired of fighting an endless war just because some High Power decided that she would be the new Slayer.

It hadn't been her fight since she was sixteen.

x-x

"_Now, Helim, see this spirit? He will help you in your fights._"

When she turned five, her father decided that it was time for her to learn how to fight. Buffy–-she was never able to accept Helim as her name-hadn't told Kalim that she already knew how to fight and that she had hidden from the whole tribe her powers as a Slayer.

She hadn't expected him to show her the spirit of a bull and proceed to explain her how a shaman uses his powers, saying that the spirit next to him would help her in her fights. Kalim's error was telling her to let the spirit enter her body to gain his power.

It took him months to convince his daughter to train again with him.

x-x

"_I'm worried about her, Silva_."

"_Why?_"

"_She won't stop training._"

Helim had never been like the other kids. She had always distanced herself from others and acted like she was older than she looked. Some of the members of the Patch tribe had suspected that she was a reincarnation of someone. Sometimes they would joke about Hao coming back as a girl.

He only heard her daughter cry once. The day that her mother died, she had left for her room and refused to come out for the rest of the day. Kalim was going to talk with the six years old girl when he heard the spirit of his wife already talking with her.

He didn't know what Helim had been told, but since then she had never stopped training.

x-x

"_The Patch tribe protects the Great Spirit and the Shaman King, not matter what._"

Her mother's death had affected Buffy more than what she had thought it would. Of course, she had tried to be a good mother and tried to comfort her daughter, even if it was like a spirit. It was the mention of the Great Spirit and how they would meet again inside it what made Buffy stop crying.

Her parents had told her that all spirits were part of the Great Spirit, but she didn't know much more than that. So, she asked her mother about it. The woman's spirit just smiled and explained her about the Shaman Fight that was going to take place in the near future.

Buffy didn't like the idea of the Shaman Fight. Why? Why give someone that kind of power for winning a competition between shamans? What if someone that wanted to destroy the world won the competition?

The Patch tribe was supposed to protect the Shaman King, give the winner of the Shaman Fight control over the Great Spirit for five hundred years. Buffy didn't like that rule.

So, when she found the spirit of a mountain lion, she didn't try to fight back the smirk that appeared on her face. The winner of the Fight would be crowned Shaman King or Queen.

She wondered if five centuries were enough time to find a solution to the problem that presented the Shaman Fight.

She had never liked to follow rules, anyway.

x-x

Goldva couldn't help but think that there was something wrong with Helim's guardian ghost, Kendra, just like she couldn't help the shiver that ran down her spine whenever she saw the girl train.

She saw her train sometimes. Whenever she used her sword to create her Over Soul, it was like seeing a deathly dance, but what really scared Goldva were Helim's eyes when she merged with Kendra.

Golden eyes. Helim's eyes were the only thing that changed. Eyes of a predator.

x-x

"_I'm going with you._"

Kalim didn't know how to react when Helim informed him that she was also going to Tokyo; in part, he was glad at his daughter's decision. He would be able to spend time with her, even if it was during the Shaman Fight.

However, he worried about her. After all, Hao Asakura would be there. He told Helim to be careful of that boy-who wasn't really a boy-and to not be careless around him.

Kalim never expected her to attack him.

x-x

"_I cut you; I'll be taking the Oracle Bell._"

"_Helim, stop this!_"

"_Helim? No, not anymore._"

Buffy didn't know how old she was supposed to be. As Helim, she was barely thirteen when the Shaman Fight started, and as Buffy Summers she had lived until she was twenty one. Did that mean that she was now thirty four? Being older than your own father was funny. Not like that was important. What mattered was convincing her father to take her to Tokyo. She attacked him as soon as she had the chance.

She had won and taken the Oracle Bell with her. If she used Kendra, her own powers were amplified. The Shaman Fight was a battle between shamans to obtain the Great Spirit. She was good at battles, and Buffy had now the same kind of weapon as everyone else.

Buffy knew what she would be facing in this mission. She had seen _him_ in her dreams. The day that the Shaman Fight started, Buffy had had a Slayer dream showing her Hao and what he had done in the past.

The rest of the tribe… Well, she had a slight idea of how the rest of the tribe would react to her actions. She didn't care about their reactions; the only reaction that had actually bothered her had been her father's.

The look on Kalim's face when she had attacked him… No, it didn't matter. She had to win this and find a way to end this stupid fight between shamans who didn't understand that there was a bigger fight going on, that there was a War where Existence itself was the prize for the winner.

The Slayer was back.


End file.
